A network of raised catwalks, as in the slaughter floor, allows for viewing of every work station. Each of the 1,150 employees stands on an adjustable station. Each of the nine tables is 48-in. high and each work stand can be adjusted up or down according to the height of the worker. Tyson’s own ergonomic engineers set the recommended heights, Poole says.
For ergonomic and worker safety reasons, Tyson has also focused on reducing the number of overhead throws, i.e., when a worker has to put a piece of meat on a higher conveyor belt. Its goal is to totally eliminate all such throws, Poole says. Another ergonomic focus is to make every job easier, be it skinning or breaking down chucks. The latter is one of the more physical jobs, so Tyson is looking to simplify the task even more, Poole says.
Tyson also has its customers firmly in mind on the fabrication floor. It has for two or three years been producing two sizes of standing rib roasts with extended bones. The roast with a 12-in. bone is called a tomahawk rib and the roast with an 8-in. bone a cowboy rib. Both are sold to top steakhouse chains.
Even more automation is seen when product moves from the fabrication floor to an intermediate floor before going to the plant’s vast boxed storage system. Cases of beef products are sealed, weighed, run through metal detectors and labeled. Boxes are then accumulated and palletized according to customer requirements. This process is nearly all automated and every movement is built around efficiency. For example, the plant uses automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to move pallets. The plant currently uses single product pallets, but Tyson could move down the road to mixed box pallets, Poole says. The green IBP logo, incidentally, is still on all boxes of commodity beef.
Tyson’s intense focus on worker safety and its recognition of their importance is by no means confined to the design and operation of the plant’s slaughter and fabrication floors. Print-outs taped to corridor walls recognize individual team members as part of Tyson’s 5Cs program, which it began in the past year. These five Cs are: Caring, Candor, Creativity, Collaboration and Commitment. One worker was seen identifying a piece of cotton in a product. Recognition can come at any time for any member of the complex.
Tyson built the slaughter and fabrication floors with a view to expanding both, and it has already done that. That’s why Donnie King, president of Tyson’s North American operations, told the anniversary picnic that Tyson has done a lot of great things at the plant, but it is not done yet.
The plant still has the footprint of the old slaughter floor and could rebuild it as an additional slaughter floor. So who knows how many cattle Tyson might be harvesting at Dakota City in another 50 years’ time, when it will surely still be operating? In the meantime, the complex has set the standard for beef processing plants not only around the US, but around the world.
